The Hamilton Spectator

Gage Park tennis club celebrates century of matches with new winterized dome

Club has 300-name wait list for year-round play

- KATE MCCULLOUGH REPORTER KATE MCCULLOUGH IS A REPORTER AT THE SPECTATOR. KMCCULLOUG­H@THESPEC.COM

Growing demand for year-round access has prompted Gage Park’s tennis club to build a new bubble, doubling the number of indoor courts.

The Rosedale Tennis Club, which in 2023 celebrated 100 years of matches at its Lawrence Road location in the popular central Hamilton park, is building a dome over four more of its outdoor courts, bringing the total number of winterized courts to eight.

“The second seasonal dome will allow more youth programmin­g, adult lessons, group and senior tennis and access for community groups year round,” club manager Vince Ormond said in an email.

Constructi­on is underway with workers now “digging along the perimeter” of the courts to install a foundation wall that will anchor the bubble, he said.

Constructi­on began just before Christmas and is set to be completed in late May or early June.

The project comes with a nationwide push to winterize courts as Canadian interest in the sport grows, especially among youth.

Eleven per cent more kids ages six to 17 played tennis last year compared with 2022, a recent study commission­ed by Tennis Canada found. Overall, there’s been a “spike” in interest, with five million Canadians swinging rackets in 2023, the organizati­on said.

Tennis was the fifth most-played sport in Canada, after soccer, basketball, golf and hockey, the study found.

Tennis Canada launched in 2022 a partnershi­p with Rogers to build 160 new year-round courts by 2029. To date, indoor courts have been built at six facilities, including the Ancaster Tennis Club.

For the last decade, Rosedale has been “setting aside funds to go toward the growing sport” and improving the club, whose goal is “inclusive and affordable community tennis,” Ormond said.

The club has allocated more than $900,000, in addition to a loan of about $1.2 million from the city, to be repaid over 15 years.

The club is also looking for sponsors to offset costs.

The city received early last year a request from the club for a loan to build a new dome “for the purpose of increasing tennis opportunit­ies for Hamilton youth, families, seniors, local schools and other community groups,” reads a city report.

Since the club operates at Gage Park, it is eligible for an interestfr­ee loan with “rigorous” guidelines, including provisions for onetime projects that “benefit the community at large,” Hamilton’s manager of budgets and fiscal policy Kirk Weaver said in an email.

Rosedale and other sports organizati­ons, including Dundas, Ancaster, Stoney Creek, Huntington, Carlisle, and Hilltop and Hamilton tennis clubs, operate under municipal licence agreements that prioritize organizati­ons that provide “community benefit,” Hamilton recreation acting director Steve Sevor said in an email.

“The constructi­on of additional covered courts was prompted by community demands for tennis,” Ormond said. Demand at Rosedale began to rise in 2015. For several years, there has been a wait-list for year-round membership of more than 300 names, as well as “continued pressure” for youth programmin­g, he said.

The club has more than 700 summer and 375 year-round members from ages five into their late 80s who play tennis, a “lifelong” sport, Ormond said, as well as a staff of 12 and a volunteer board of directors.

Ormond says recent interest is due in part to the success of Canadian players like Mississaug­a’s Bianca Andreescu. Several of the club’s own players compete locally, nationally and internatio­nally.

 ?? ?? Work to cover four additional courts at Rosedale Tennis Club is underway. The non-profit sports club says builders are digging the perimeter of existing outdoor courts to install a foundation wall that will anchor the bubble.
Work to cover four additional courts at Rosedale Tennis Club is underway. The non-profit sports club says builders are digging the perimeter of existing outdoor courts to install a foundation wall that will anchor the bubble.
 ?? CATHIE COWARD PHOTOS THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR ?? The courts on the northwest corner of the club, seen in the bottom photo, have had the asphalt removed and are waiting for the next step of constructi­on.
CATHIE COWARD PHOTOS THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR The courts on the northwest corner of the club, seen in the bottom photo, have had the asphalt removed and are waiting for the next step of constructi­on.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Canada